Conservative MPs will next week attack Coalition plans to boost the number of
part-time soldiers at the expense of full-time regulars.

A newly-formed group of Tory backbenchers fighting cuts to the military have called a parliamentary debate on Tuesday in a bid to block the Ministry of Defence’s controversial plan. One sceptical MP said that anyone who thought the strategy would work must have "smoked a lot of dope".

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph last year, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said he wanted to double the size of the Territorial Army from 15,000 to 30,000 while reducing the regular army by 20,000 to 82,000.

Critics argue the plan will undermine the capability of the armed forces and that many employers will not want to lose their staff for months on end when they are asked to deploy overseas.

John Baron, the Tory MP for Basildon and Billericay leading the group pushing for a fair deal for the forces, said: “The debate will allow us to question whether the increase in reservists is a false economy when compared to retaining regular battalions.

“The Government appears reluctant to disclose figures and has admitted it costs more to train reservists. Furthermore, the fact that only one in four reservists are currently deployable also adds uncertainty to Government estimates.

“This is a high-risk approach. Cutting regular battalions before being certain that reservists can both plug the capability gap and be cost-effective is unwise. The Government should re-examine its position.”

Mark Francois, the Conservative MoD minister for military personnel, will defend the Government’s plans in Tuesday afternoon’s Westminster Hall debate.

The proposals represent the most radical shake up of the Territorial Army in its 100-year history. Ministers say they have found £1.8 billion to spend on training and equipping the bolstered army reserve.

Colonel Bob Stewart, the Conservative MP for Beckenham who led United Nations in Bosnia during the 1990s, said that many reservists could not be deployed overseas.

“What happens is that employers don’t want to lose their staff for up to a year, wives don’t want to lose their husbands and the blokes themselves don’t actually want to go,” said Mr Stewart, who called Tuesday’s debate. “Members of the Territorial Army can be very good, but are they deployable? In my experience very often they are not.

“The Government's defence plans look like trying to get an army on the cheap. This will reduce the army down to 82,000 – an army of that size is not an army... it’s a self defence force.

“The Territorial Army actually appears to be losing numbers at the moment – some people say as much as 1,000 a year. Someone at the MoD is smoking a lot of dope if they think they will actually manage to get the reserve up to 30,000.”

A spokesman for the MoD said: "Territorial Army numbers continue to rise as we seek to grow the Army Reserve to a trained strength of 30,000 by 2018.

"We know this is a challenge which is why we have invested a further £1.8bn in training, support and equipment for the reserves over the next ten years. The forthcoming White Paper will help increase recruitment numbers and clarify the benefits to employers and reservists alike.”